Phys.org February 7, 2023 Understanding and prediction of tropical cyclone (TC) activity on the medium range remains challenging. Researchers in the UK found that the pre-existing westward-moving equatorial waves can inform the risk of TC occurrence and intensification, based on a dataset obtained by synchronising objectively identified TCs and equatorial waves in a climate reanalysis. Globally, westward-moving equatorial waves can be precursors to 60–70% of pre-tropical cyclogenesis events, and to >80% of the events with the strongest vorticity, related to the favourable environmental conditions within the pouch of equatorial waves. They also found that when storms are in-phase with westward-moving […]
Tag Archives: Tropical cyclones
Half-century of cyclone data puts researchers on track to explore future risks
Phys.org January 19, 2023 Tropical cyclones (TCs) with genesis in the Coral Sea present significant hazards to coastal regions in their surroundings. In addition, the erratic nature of TC tracks is not well understood in this region. Researchers in Australia grouped Coral Sea TC tracks over the last fifty years based on K-means clustering of the maximum wind-weighted centroids to extract valuable new cyclone power, track curvature and location related information to predict their behaviour. They assessed the TC track variance and curvature (sinuosity) and identified three well-defined clusters of TC tracks. The results showed differing predominant directions of TC […]